Back to the Good Ole Days . . .

Coupon clipping, budgeting, exchanging babysitting. This is the headlines these days for people who are trying to make it thru the recession - Like its a new invention or something. But these things are not new to us. Aunt Deby was the queen of coupon clipping.We took care of each others kids, FOR Free, even overnight sometimes. Those are the reasons why we didn't have to work when our kids were little. That is why we were able to live on $1,000 dollars a month (or less) and still go to the show and to dinner once a week and go on vacations even. Of course things weren't as expensive as they are now. We could have a really good steak dinner for 2 for $15.00. And feed the whole family at Burger King for 15 dollars. We took the whole family to Disney Land with $1500.00 dollars in our pocket and came home with 300.00 still in our pocket.(The kids all helped to earn that money I might add) And the kids have good memories of all the things did. Even though we did them as cheaply as possible. I was the queen of cheap. The only thing my kids haven't forgiven me for is the time we took them all to the show one night and when the ticket lady said it would cost $28.00 I said "sorry, I'm not paying that much!" My kids were mortified. (I admit that I was too cheap sometimes) But as far as I know none of my kids are scarred for life. But thats the way it goes, we did more than our parents did and our kids have done way more than we did. But it always seems to come back to the basics. Even if you make lots of money - every generation goes thru bad times. It keeps us humble and grateful. In the old days we got together more, went out less, cousins played together more, because we were babysitting for each other. I remember helping Deby move into the house she is in now, we had all of our kids and everything we could cram into an old van (no seatbelts) and made the trip a million times back an forth until we moved her in. We made do or went without but didn't seem to let it get us down. Deby was also the queen of garage sales and knew all the good houses to go to. Alot of our school shopping was done that way. We didn't have to keep up with the Jones's because they didn't have much either. But I'm glad things are turning back to the basics. I saw first hand Amy's coupon keeping book and I was so impressed. And she really does have a full stocked pantry. Its proof you really can live on any budget. Its more funner with a bigger budget, but it can be done.